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Understanding Light – Working with hard light

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Being able to look at an image and understand the lighting within it is not crucial to becoming a great photographer. But having the ability to look at another image you love and recognise the qualities that stand out to you will undoubtedly help you to become a better photographer far faster.

Last week we looked at how important being able to understand light can be and I also highlighted where many self-taught photographers struggle with this in today’s industry. If you missed last weeks article then I recommend you take a look to see some of the pitfalls self-taught photographers can struggle with as today’s article leads on from that.[Read More…]

Ten things a photographer wishes he’d known before he started using strobes

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When you first start using strobes, it can be exciting but also overwhelming. There’s a lot to learn and a lot of mistakes to make before you get it right. In this video from Behind the Shutter, photographer Michael Corsentino shares his experience with strobes. He talks about ten things he wishes he’d known before he started shooting with them. If you’re just starting out, this video will help you learn and avoid mistakes.

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Maximising space – A tour of our new not-huge studio

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We moved to our new studio a few months ago and we have been gradually building things as we go. This will be the first of several videos in this series where we will try and give a look at what we tried to accomplish with our studio.

Our new studio isn’t big, it is actually about the size of a mid size room (close to 40 square meters which is just over 400 square feet). It has quite low ceilings which isn’t ideal for photography in many respects but we tried to get the best out of it and it does have some advantages for what we have been doing as you will see later on.

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Shooting in a small space – a brief tour of my tiny home studio

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A lot of people seem to think I have this giant space. I do not. I actually never had more space than those 2 converted bedrooms I work in now and not so long ago I rented a small, bedroom-sized commercial space. And even before that, I used to work in my studio between my bed and desk. And going even further back, I had to sit on my bed to even be able to shoot a half body. I started working with clients in the time I had a one-room living studio space. Good times.

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How to use V-flats to create three different beauty lighting setups

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When shooting in a studio, you can use V-flats in a variety of ways. In this video, Lindsay Adler  shows you three simple setups you can create for beauty photography using V-flats. Each of them requires subtle changes in the setup, yet they’ll all give you drastically different results.

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Here’s a detailed guide to prepare you for your actor headshots

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Your actor headshots, combined with your actor showreel, are the foundations of your actor profile. They are without shadow of a doubt a key marketing tool for your acting career. It’s important to prepare yourself in order to get the most out of your session.

If you are reading this it is because you have booked or you are thinking on booking a headshots session. In this article I’ll try to answer most of the common questions that we usually receive on how to prepare for your actor headshots session.

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How I did this pink & red studio shoot: a step-by-step breakdown from planning to post-processing

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Shooting for yourself is something I talk about a lot, I talk about it a lot but I have struggled to do over the last 12 months.

In 2016 I shot maybe 20-30 shoots which were for myself to try new skills, develop my work and give myself a break for the paid work I was doing.

In 2017 I did only 4 shoots like this. Now a little of that is because I was a victim of my own success, my commercial work grew massively and became my biggest photography year on earnings and hours worked. This meant my own personal work had to take a little bit of a back seat. Well not a little, it wasn’t even in the back seat, it was left at home in a cupboard which was locked and nailed shut!

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Lights, shadow and highlight – How I lit this dramatic portrait

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Creating a dramatic portrait, moody ,emotional, edgy, dark, the subject/model, scene and clothing help portray all of those but one ingredient that remains constant to help achieve the drama is light, shadow and highlight, in this blog post I cover how I lit this image I will show you the position of the lights and what modifiers were used.

If you want to jump straight to the video explaining it all here you go.

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This is how different softbox placement affects your portraits

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When photographing portraits in a studio, you can create many different looks using only one light. Depending on how you place it and how big it is, a softbox can significantly change the look and mood of your photos. In this video, Jay P Morgan discusses different factors of softbox placement. And when you learn how they affect your portraits, you’ll know exactly how to achieve the look you want.

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These 10 life hacks will turn your studio into a photographer’s Batcave

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Having a photography studio is fun, but it is even more fun when you start applying simple and cheap solutions, plus common sense to make your shooting experience (and your clients’) smoother.

This is the list of what I think are the smartest and most useful photography studio life hacks.

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